Free Republic

Carpooling won't do much to reduce U.S. highway congestion in urban areas, and a better solution would be to build new highways and charge drivers fees to use them, the White House said on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT "It is increasingly appropriate to charge drivers for some roadway use in the same way the private market charges for other goods and services," the White House said in its annual report on the U.S. economy. While some urban areas have designated roads for vehicles with two or more passengers, those high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are often underused because carpooling is becoming less popular,...

Federal food safety officials said fresh spinach is "as safe as it was before the outbreak," even though investigators have not determined the cause of a deadly E. coli outbreak. FDA officials said yesterday that consumers should continue to avoid spinach recalled Sept. 14 by Natural Selection Foods LLC, a fresh produce processor based in San Juan Bautista, Calif. Four other companies have recalled spinach they got from Natural Selection. But officials cleared spinach grown in the Salinas Valley, after warning consumers for the past week not to eat spinach from that area.